The Turkey Holiday

1st Snow, Family, the Bird


Thanksgiving weekend was very eventful. There was just so much happening: Thanksgiving, friends staying with us, my 15 yr high school reunion, the first snow of the year, and deer season.

The night before Turkey Day is historically known as THE night to go out at our local bar the Alpha. It’s shoulder to shoulder, but you see everyone you know and it’s always fun. My friend shows up higher than a kite – she was too funny – she kept swaying back and forth and giggling. We had to stand next to a wall to anchor her.

On Thanksgiving Day, D and I cooked and had my folks over for dinner. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two times of year that make me realize how small my family is. It was just the four of us. My brother and his wife and two kids live in Florida and rarely get up above the Mason Dixon line to visit. My actual family unit is hardly ever together. Just the four of us sitting round the table was yet another call to my heart to have kids. Lots of kids. (D is one of 6 and his house is always packed with people at the holidays. I love that) But we had a nice dinner. I can not stress how important the bird is to my parents. When did we put it in? What temp are we cooking it at? Are we basting often enough? Did we use Grandma’s recipe for stuffing? I was getting a little claustrophobic trying to get everything on the table warm and at the same time, so I asked my mom to scoot out of the kitchen… ”no – I want to see the bird come out of the oven. I don’t want to miss it”. Hey – when you’re 70 I guess these things become important. (As much as my mom can drive me nuts, she helped me make the gravy, and I loved that. She won't be here forever to do things like that.) My dad cooked two pumpkin pies. In case we (the 4 of us) needed it. Two diff recipes though, so we had to try both. One was my Grandmother’s. (One taste is full of years of memories of her house.) The first snow flurries came right before dinner and added to the holiday feel. We played Yahtzee after dinner. My mom doesn’t shake the dice, she rolls them between her hands so when they drop, it’s almost the exact same roll. And then she wonders why she loses.

A kitchen full of dishes later and a house to clean before my childhood friend and her husband show up for 2 nights so we can all shlep off to our 15 yr. high school reunion. More on that later…